//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: Whistling Rain 
// by Schwabauer 
//------------------------------//

“Just to make sure we have the same story,” began Sir Eikhoff, his hands brought together in a point, directed at Empress Cadence, “My people built a fort on what we thought was unclaimed land, which is our fault, we should have verified it with you before settling, you rightly felt threatened by this act, and our use of horses as dumb labor terrified you, again understandable. Your reaction was not to send a declaration of war and attack us, but instead notify your allies for them to deal with the issue. Your allies then assault our fort without a declaration of war, destroying it utterly and wiping it out to the man, stole its horses, and continued to attack a new settlement. Is this all?”

“Yes, that is right, Sir Eikhoff.” cadence responded, nodding and looking serious. The meeting between the two sides had been arranged to start that morning and was now taking place in a large meeting room. Eikhoff had his aides in the room, all taking notes or sifting through papers to supply documents for Eikhoff. Cadence had her husband, sister-in-law, and aunts sitting with her, all of them supplying clarification where needed. Four Srenograds stood at attention at the door behind Eikhoff, while four Crystal Guard Stallions stood at attention opposite them. 

“Now that we have cleared that up, I would like to issue the letter that our Governor sent with me to hand to you. I have not read it, but I do believe that I know what the contents of the letter are, Empress.” Sir Eikhoff pulled the letter out of an inside pocket in his overcoat and held it off to the side. An aide took the letter and began to walk it over to Empress Cadence before he was stopped by her magic gently pulling it from his hands. 

Cadence gave Sir Eikhoff one more glance to see if his face revealed anything, finding it to be a stoic wall. She delicately floated a letter opener from the table up to it and began slicing under the seal, trying to keep it intact. With a small rustle, the envelope flap popped open, and Empress Cadence removed and unfolded the sheet of paper inside. She began reading aloud, “The Royal Governor of the Colony of the Kartiv’s Point would like to formally thank Empress Mi Amora Cadenza for permitting our diplomats to...” The long opening was filled with all sorts of diplomatic niceties that Cadence did not care for. The third paragraph of the letter finally broached the subject of diplomacy, starting with, “On the Stance of the Kartiv’s Point Colony’s future diplomatic relations with the Crystal Empire and her allies, the Governor has felt the upmost necessity of issuing a Declaration of War for the following reasons...”

Everybody on the Crystal Empire’s side of the table’s eyes widened and jaws hung loose, as they stared at Sir Eikhoff, who smiled idly back at them. After a moment he repositioned and set his hands on the table and leaned forward. “Now, from what I can gather the Crystal Empire is a protectorate of Equestia,” he began, gesturing quickly at the two Equestrian Princesses seated at the table, “So that Declaration of War also extends to the Equestrian Diarchy. I would prefer to be informed now of any other nations that would be obligated to engage in this conflict,”

“Y-you can’t be serious.” Stuttered out Twilight, looking at him incredulously, “You spent all this time insisting that we follow some rules of diplomacy proper just to declare war? W-we had hoped for a peaceful resolution, and you let us continue to hope? We don’t want more conflict!”

Sir Eikhoff stood and said, “But we want war with you, Miss Sparkle. Now if you excuse me, I have a pigeon to send, and then my escort and I will be seeing ourselves out.”

Luna stood, her Royal Voice booming through the room, shouted, “You will not be going anywhere, not until we negotiate a peaceful settlement!”

Eikhoff squinted at her, his face twisting into a sneer. “That sounded like a threat, Princess Luna. You wouldn’t dare take a diplomat hostage in a hall that isn’t even yours, would you? You wouldn’t want to tarnish your nation’s reputation?”

Celestia forcefully put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, forcing her to sit. “My apologies for my sister’s behavior, Sir Eikhoff. You and your escort are free to leave and go unharried. I do wish you a safe journey home.” 

“Thank you, Princess Celestia.,” Eikhoff began, before turning to Empress Cadence, “I thank you for your hospitality, Empress. The food was exquisite, and the lodgings perfect. I do sincerely hope that I can visit this city in different circumstances in the future. Good day, and may God be with you.” 

With that, Eikhoff left the room, followed by his aides rapidly shoving all their papers into bags and folders. The Srenograds left last, pulling the doors shut behind them with a click. The sounds of the diplomat and his contingent's boots could be heard for several minutes afterwards, gradually fading deep into the castle. Twilight turned to her mentor, family, and Luna, her face agape with horror. 

Her mouth flapped wordlessly for several minutes before she said, “I never thought that somebody would engage in diplomacy just to declare war...”

Luna shook her head, glaring angrily at the doors they left through. “Those despicable Prussians will regret ever setting foot on our continent. We will personally tear them limb from limb with our battle ax.”

Celestia shook her head, and said, “No, you will not, dear sister. You will prepare our soldiers to wage war, activate our reserves and train new troops. We must be prepared to make a show of force to make them surrender.”

“Celestia, the Crystal Guard are more than equipped to do a show of force. I doubt they have many more soldiers than what we saw in that fort, that ‘diplomatic escort’ seemed thrown together, there wasn’t an honor guard, nor band, or much of anything. Their foothold in the far north seems too wobbly, and their declaration of war was more a situation of honor, if I were to hazard a guess. Perhaps the Crystal Guard were to march through their stollen lands they would be more willing to negotiate.”

Cadence’s gaze snapped to Shining, narrowing slightly, “Are you suggesting that we invade the Shining?”

Shining Armor shifted in his seat, suddenly feeling a little nervous, “Well when you put it that way... Yes, I am. Not to occupy them or anything, just to force them to make peace. We wouldn’t loot any towns or harm any civilians...”

“Shining, you are still proposing an invasion! How could you-”

“Shining is right, Cadence,” Celestia interjected, “These ‘Prussians’ are very caught up in affairs of honor and tradition, looking at the way they handled diplomacy. They brought gifts for the rulers, felt it would be insulting to use a translator, and earlier apologized for their lack of fanfare or warning. They looked down on us for not sending them a neatly worded letter to say that we were declaring war on them. If we were to show them to have been verily defeated or outmatched, they would have to surrender. And should their ‘Govenor continue to refuse, we can remove him so that somebody more reasonable would negotiate peace.”

Cadence looked at Celestia with a hint of doubt, before saying, “Alright, if you think this is best, the Crystal Guard will prepare to march towards their colony.” 

“Thank you, dear niece. Now, we need to go over the units that the Crystal Guard have, and there are any that Luna or I could teleport here on short notice...”





Twilight looked over at Shining, who was dressed in his purple armor, polished to match his name. He was looking over the list of different units the Empire had at its immediate disposal, deciding the order of their marching column. Twilight recalled that they received a unit of elite Day Guard pegasi and a unit of Night Guard unicorns to supplement the current forces of the Empire. There were five units of medium infantry, two units of light infantry, a unit of heavy infantry-- which acted as Shining’s Vanguard and personal guard--a unit of heavy mounted bows, and three units of light hoof bows. The Crystal Empire lack of Unicorn, and Pegasi ponies limited their scope of units readily available.

Twilight herself was wearing a dark purple piece of armor, emblazoned with her cutie mark. At some point Luna had eagerly commissioned armor to be made for each of the elements of harmony, color coding them and giving them each their own unique flare. Twilight held multiple secret compartments for scroll and spell components, which she found ridiculous. Spell casting was far past the point of needing components and scrolls to work. She sighed, before leaving to gather her friends to prepare to set off on their march.





General Harvig Karlson's army sat camping in the thin band of forest that bordered the Crystal Empire and the Prussian colonies. His light companies had been ordered to prepare Fougasse, a kind of trip wire activated land mine, for a hopeful ambush he was planning. His Frei-korps were instructed to do the same, but were... significantly less effective at it. His line infantry were building a long Schanze along the edge of the woods, the earthworks providing just enough cover the chest and allow for easy firing positions. Some units were working on sharpening stakes and making rope to make Chevaux de frise. The howitzer batteries were building gabions further back behind the trenches, set back into the ground. His dragoons and hussars were ordered to lower themselves from their mounts and dirty their hands helping the infantry dig their trenches and build their Chevaux de frise. 

Inside the General’s tent he was pouring over rough maps sketched of the surrounding territory, moving wooden unit markers about, each colored and carved slightly differently. The dark blue ones were humanoid, each mimicking the uniform of one of his units of soldiers. The red ones were far more crude, with just red blocks with swords or bows carved into them, and there were significantly more, often being exchanged for another counterpart, or added and removed at the whim of General Karlson. Other markers were shaped like clouds, or flames, or some other environmental effect. These too were shifted about the maps and board at his whims, being moved and shaped to whatever scenario he could think of. His aides marched around, shifting maps and pulling reports for him as he demanded, placing them into his gloved hands which would be presented demandingly in the air.

Outside, a lone pigeon fluttered into a mail master’s cage, a scroll tied onto its legs. One of his assistants noticed it and brought it to his attention. He quickly brought the letter to one of the guards outside the General’s tent, who in turn presented it to an aide, who read it to General Karlson. Karlson responded by quickly writing up orders for his Dragoons, and sending them away with a spare aide. They were excited to be able to cast aside their shovels and knives, putting back on their gloves and loading their carbines. Their sabres were sharpened and clasped onto their waists. The dragoons mounted their horses and set off into the forest, ducking around and beneath branches as they rode into the Crystal Empire.